the groundhog day project

Ben wants a big answer. His story here begins with a dream that leads to the design of a new antenna the leads to the space bubble thing, which leads to the Thunder Road spaceship which leads to the alien vessel and Ben wants it all to mean something. Like, there's got to be a reason he and Wolfgang are bullied, when Trisha over at Charles M. Jones Junior High School is just as much a nerd... but maybe not as much of a geek. A reason why Steve Jackson and his friends are assholes. A reason why Darren's father is the way he is. Why Darren's mom died when he was young. Why movies like War of the Worlds and This Island Earth can lift Ben out of his mundane suburban life. Why he can't manage the confidence to talk to Lori Swenson. Ben is still a child. He's got a crush on Lori but when he gets the opportunity to hover outside her bedroom window, he isn't looking for her to be undressing--as Darren points out, it's too early in the evening for that--but is e...

Something I didn't know about Tremors was that the filmmakers made an effort to let the audience think a person was doing the killing early on. The graboid POV shots when Rhonda gets in her truck and Old Fred's death scene were added later when the studio decided to advertise the film specifically as a monster movie. In a way, if the studio hadn't jumped in, this could play like a slasher film almost. Except that most of the cast are adults, and most of them are quite capable. I also hadn't really noticed (and learned from IMDb trivia) that aside from two interiors--Walter's store and the Gummers' basement (and inside a couple pickups)--every scene takes place outside, which fits with our leads. They sleep outside, even though they clearly have a trailer; we see them exit it after the septic tank mishap, freshly showered and heading out of town. Whether monster movie or slasher film, or whatever other subgenre of horror you want to call it, this is a not...

Phil is on his way to Punxsutawney again because it is the 2nd of the month. I am in a hotel room on a roadtrip. Unlike that fateful roadtrip made for this blog, June 2015, when I was covering Westerns for a month, this one... I was going to say that it didn't end with a broken down car, but we are not home yet. We did see some movie locations--notably Monument Valley--but nothing to do with the current run of movies from, now, 1988, in my childhood deconstruction. But, today is not even about that deconstruction, because it's Groundhog Day around here. The goal with every re-screening of Groundhog Day now, of course, is to notice something new in the film that I've not seen in the 400+ prior screenings. But, it doesn't matter if I notice something new-- (Though, as I typed that, I actually noticed a new small detail, because that's what my brain does. The old guy in the bright red hat--the one I often called the devil during the first year of this blog-...

Davies (1995) tells us that Groundhog Day "ignor[es] considerations of race and gender politics" (p. 215). But, in no uncertain terms, Davies is wrong. Well, somewhat wrong. Well, actually mostly right on the side of race. Gender is a different story. Take a "rom com" of any era and it will tell you something about gender politics at the time it was made. It's harder for the film to have anything to say about race when there are only two people in the cast who are not white and have lines. I argued in a media studies class once that Phil is effectively put in the position of the disenfranchised (as evidenced in his conversation with Ralph and Gus at the bowling alley bar) in that the regular rules of so-called civilized society do not apply to him anymore. Money has no value. His work has no value (though he does continue to work at least most days because Rubin wanted that check-in to sprinkle through the original script). Because this is a mainstream comedy ...

That Ema Hesire just does not want to marry any old guy her mother chooses for here is progressive enough that I think her urge to fly is too much, and unnecessary. But, it makes me realize that the balance of the story is off. We start with Emmy, then we go to Switcher and it is more than 10 minutes into the movie before we see Emmy in the window, and close to half an hour before she comes to life. The movie plays as Jonathan's story but the emotional payoff is Emmy's. I mean, a romantic comedy should have a payoff for both its leads but it feels like Jonathan gets what he wants before Emmy is even in the story. Richards, Felix, B.J., even Roxie--they're obstacles but not significant ones to Jonathan. Ultimately, they endanger Emmy's life (but not really, as I assume she would just be born in some future piece of art and start her cycle again), they don't endanger Jonathan's job. And, thinking about that made me realize something. I never thought of this ...

1985 is behind me now. Again. In the 80s, I guess it was like any year I made it all the way through was awesome because The Day After and Threads had offered up some wonderful visuals for my overactive imagination and cult-induced apocalypticism. Better to be Phil, stuck in the same day again and again and again, knowing that world didn't fall apart that day, no big war began, no pandemic struck, no aliens invaded. Just small town problems, a natural death or two*, and that's all. (* if you think only the Old Man died in Punxsutawney my friends, I suggest you watch this deleted scene and picture what that truck would have done to that little girl and that puppy if Phil hadn't been there.) Quick sidenote: I'm watching on the blu-Ray and the subtitles not quite matching up with the dialogue (which I've still got locked in my head as well) is really bugging me, but someone's doing laundry, and I don't want to just blast the film to the entire neighb...

I see a lot of movies by myself. Hell, I see most movies that I see by myself. There is often overlap with my ex-wife's viewing habits where we can have conversations about certain movies, but mostly, it's me, and, well... You           An audience that cannot--at least in any particularly meaningful fashion--talk back. So, it's just me and the screen, usually my iPad, that has been a fixture of this blog since before I even had a smartphone or a fire stick or a moviepass. Sometimes, rare times, I want more. Like after I saw I Feel Pretty a few days ago, or after Infinity War just this afternoon. I want to walk out of the theater talking about what we just saw, start digesting it at least in a shallow way as it settles. I had a few ideas recently about new ways of doing all this, reacting to, responding to, conversing with all the various movies I put into my head. I've even made some steps toward one of them, and I had this feeling like that lead-up...

The last few weeks haven't been the best for me but I just reinvent myself each day as someone doing better. I go through the motions of work. I put up with the worst of my students, enjoy the best of them. I watch television, I watch movies--and write about them here--and I play D&D when I can. I was already in a bad mood Saturday when I got to watching I don't feel at home in this world anymore . Hours later I watched Jim & Andy ... Full title for that last one: Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond: Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton because the premise of the film is far bigger than just Jim & Andy , just Jim and Andy, Just Jim and Andy and Tony. The premise of the documentary is Jim Carrey getting so much into character as Andy Kaufman and as Tony Clifton while filming Man on the Moon that he sort of lost himself... Or found himself, I guess is the point. And, after a tough time lately in terms of my mental health, it was an...

                                                                                                   

I'm looking for something new tonight. It's the 2nd of the month so I'm watching Groundhog Day as has been the usual since phase three of this blog. I want to catch some new detail, to revel in something other than the same resumptive nostalgia that comes every month. Had I known I didn't have much specific to say tonight going in, I might've planned for a recap day, but on short notice, recap days are hard. So, I sit here, waiting for something interesting to catch my eye--or my ear; I actually noticed a line early in the film that I had wrong in my transcript and had worded wrongly as the title of an entry-- Day 180 . Kenny tells Phil, "Look, Rita thinks it would be a great idea to stay around for some of the other events, get some incredible footage." I had it as "it would be great to stay" which is just unfathomably incorrect and I, of course, tore my clothes and wailed with shame when I noticed... Or I just immediately set to fixing it on ...

That's the Griswold's house from the original Vacation , but as it looks today. (It's got a wall, but otherwise it looks basically the same.) Like, literally today, by the way. I made a slight detour on the way home from work today. And, this is the car dealership. That's even closer to where I live. Not as good a photo, though, because I couldn't park. But also, I just noticed that the opening postcard montage melds into the establishing shot of Chicago just like the tv screen melds into the establishing shot of Pittsburgh at the start of Groundhog Day . On the one hand, I'm trying to remember if Ramis used that trick in other movies. On the other, I'm thinking of what it means. It ties into the whole fantasy thing I was talking about yesterday --this nostalgia-ish sense of a vacation as some amazing escape and adventure. Imagine if the trip had gone as Clark wanted it to go, though; it would not have been that amazing, certainly not as memorable for...

Call this PART II of my Oscar predictions . Groundhog Day playing again, but I probably won't mention it again today. First up: Adapted Screenplay-- Call Me By Your Name The Disaster Artist Logan Molly's Game Mudbound --should go to Call Me By Your Name . It's the only Best Picture nominee here. Plus, James Ivory has been winning this one like it's a lifetime achievement award. Long shot goes to cowriter (and director) Dee Rees for Mudbound because the Academy might want to give that film something and this might be the only place it can. Original Screenplay-- The Big Sick Get Out Lady Bird The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri --is an interesting contest because any of these could win. Really, it's between The Big Sick , Get Out , and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , but that doesn't narrow it down much. The Writers Guild gave this to Get Out , as did Critics Choice, but the Golden Globes' single screenplay cate...

Groundhog Day is playing, and I saw Foxtrot this morning, but I will probably say next to nothing about the former, and only comment on the latter briefly. See, I also just watched the Spirit Awards a few hours ago (had to put some scores in my gradebook for this semester, and help my daughter sort some songs for a theater playlist in the intervening hours), and tomorrow is Oscar day. Groundhog Day is the welcome background noise, basically, as I elaborate on my official predictions (and my personal preferences) for this year's Oscars. Call this PART I . And, I might try to enlighten you a little on what some of these "lesser" awards are actually for. First up for me is Film Editing. The nominees: Baby Driver Dunkirk I, Tonya The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri I, Tonya won today and should win tomorrow. But, for it should be noted that the ACE Eddies (the guild award for film editors) had separate categories for drama (where Dunkirk wo...